Canelo vs. Kirkland is done, says De La Hoya

By Boxing News - 01/23/2015 - Comments

kirkland22By Dan Ambrose: Golden Boy Promotions president Oscar De La Hoya says the fight between Golden Boy promoted Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (44-1-1, 31 KOs) and the one-time popular James Kirkland (32-1, 28 KOs) is a done deal. There still isn’t a specific date for the fight, but it’s well-known that the red-haired Canelo wants the fight to take place on May 2nd, the Mexican holiday Cinco de Mayo.

Whether Canelo gets that date depends largely on if Floyd Mayweather Jr fights Manny Pacquiao next or not. The venue for the Canelo-Kirkland fight that is being talked about is the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas.

“The fight is done. The fight is done. The fight is done,” De La Hoya said via RingTV.com. “It’s the ‘Clash of The Titans.’ Canelo Alvarez is fighting James Kirkland. The fight is signed, sealed and delivered.”
Canelo confirmed on his twitter that the Kirkland fight is taking place, saying “Canelo vs. Kirkland is on.”

The 24-year-old Canelo pulled in 40,000 fans three years ago for his controversial win over Austin Trout over there. It’s possible that Canelo may still be able to draw a lot of fans in that venue. Having Kirkland, a Texas native, fighting him in Texas will definitely help bring in some good numbers, even though Kirkland has done very little with his boxing career since 2009.

This is kind of a fight that is the equivalent of Canelo pulling a name from the past like Joshua Clottey, another fighter who kind of dropped off the face of the boxing map following a loss to Manny Pacquiao in 2010.

Michael Miller, the manager for Kirkland, told RingTV “James has signed, and Eric [Gomez] told me that Canelo has signed.”

At this point the Canelo-Kirkland fight will need to wait until the Mayweather-Pacquiao negotiations wrap up before they find out if they’ll be fighting on May 2nd or not. Canelo is prepared to compete with Mayweather for the May 2nd date if he faces Miguel Cotto or Amir Khan, but not if he faces Pacquiao. Mayweather would be fighting on Showtime, whereas Canelo would be on HBO.

Canelo had been recently in negotiations with Cotto for a fight on HBO, but the fight negotiations fell through after Canelo abruptly pulled out of the negotiations after one of Golden Boy’s many deadlines weren’t met by Cotto. According to Cotto’s adviser, the money wasn’t right for the fight. Canelo obviously could have changed that if he had taken a smaller cut, but that failed to happen and the negotiations stalled until Canelo pulled out of them.

Facing Kirkland next is going to strain the memories of the hardcore boxing fans, because it’s been so many years since Kirkland was a relevant fighter. He’s just been active enough to stay in the minds of fans. The newer fans that have emerged in the last three four years will likely have no knowledge of who Kirkland is.

For this reason, it’s not as big a fight or as important fight as it would be if Canelo were to face a relevant fighter like the Charlo brothers or a rematch with Erislandy Lara, a fighter who many boxing fans feel beat Canelo last July in his last fight. The Charlo brothers and Lara would be very difficult fights for Canelo, and you have to wonder why Canelo isn’t being matched against them. Is this more skillful match-making by De La Hoya to keep his golden goose out of harms way?



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